Comprehensive Mobility Plan - Introduction

Introduction

Surat has emerged as a fast growing city in India and has also been identified as an emerging Smart City. The city’s economic progress has created multiple employment opportunities and has led to rapid growth in population with a decadal growth rate over 60% continuously over the past 6 decades. Today, Surat is eighth most populous city in India and Gujarat’s second most populous metropolitan area with a population of 4.5 million (2011).

Today, 'City Mobility' is recognised as an important parameter that governs city’s economic needs. The city needs to improve its mobility for meeting the needs of business, commerce, services and education. A better mobility opportunity also improves environmental health of city. Recognising this, Surat Municipal Corporation has initiated several projects in urban transport over the past decade to facilitate efficient mobility in the city. Apart from structuring the urban road network, a Bus Rapid Transit System is also being implemented in the city. The city is also taking keen interest in augmenting the capacity of city bus services as feeder network to ensure a larger coverage across the city. An Integrated Operations Plan is hereby planned to boost the public transport share for the city. Also, introduction of high capacity rapid transit system - metro is also being considered for the city.

While such initiatives are notable, an integrated view of the complete transport system in the city is essential. To ensure this, the Ministry of Urban Development recommends preparation of a Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) for the city that identifies and addresses transport and related issues and produces an integrated, multi-modal strategic framework for investment, management and operational decision-making in urban transport.

The work on the Comprehensive mobility Plan started in April 2016 with Household surveys and traffic surveys being conducted in Surat. We have had good support from the citizens in the city regarding the same and now we are analyzing the information collected through these surveys.

As an integral part of the CMP process citizens involvement and their perception is a must to be captured in line with this we are starting the first phase of the consultation process which requires you to answer simple question regarding the mobility needs of Surat city and your aspiration regarding future mobility.

Once we have your opinions in place we will work on the proposals and bring them back to you for your suggestions as a part of the city consultation process which will happen in May / June 2017. Please also provide us with your name and contact details so that we can keep you updated on the progress of the plan and events scheduled thereof.